There has not been so large a portion of Americans in poverty since 1993. But this time the growth in poverty is different, hitting whites and suburbia harder than it did during the early 1990s slump. African Americans, by contrast, appear to be doing better.

The suburban poverty rate is 11.8 percent, a level not seen since 1967.

African Americans appear to be faring relatively better than they did in the early 1990s. In 1993 the poverty rate for African Americans reached 33.1 percent. Last year it was 27.4 percent.

It's not entirely clear why African Americans are faring so much better in this recession than in the last, at least in terms of poverty. It may be that social and economic progress in the intervening years has left African Americans less vulnerable to economic downturns.

A key factor in the rise in suburban poverty may be the fact that the housing market has played such a central role in the economic slump.

Many suburbs have seen a vast amount of wealth erased by declining housing markets and mortgage foreclosures, resulting in a great deal of economic dislocation. Since white Americans are more likely to own homes than African Americans, this could also explain why whites have fared worse than they did in the 1990s while African Americans have fared better.

5 comments:

But check out the final paragraph at the wiki for "White Racial Frame." A (presumably white) editor was hurt by the entry:

This is the most racist article that has been published herein as a serious study of human behavior. Anyone reading this will have a clear understanding of how lumping an entire race into a category of racists and bigots by claiming an underlying sense of racial superiority is prevalent in the psyche of most white Americans can be beyond divisive to the point of intellectual dishonesty. Such an assault, if leveled on any other race would be deemed hate speech. Shame on you and your hate filled heart.

@Trip. You be kidding child. White pain, significantly less than others is framed as the "crisis." Black suffering as a gain...not as bad as before. One patient is dead, the other is still on life support and doing relatively okay, even if hurting, but the tragedy is the latter, the former framed as a triumph.

@gordon gatrelle: That wiki epilogue no longer exists. *whistles* Though maybe it should have been left there so everybody could see all that nonsense.

@Triptych: Where is the racism? How about the hand-wringing that occurs when White poverty jumps .8% over the course of 17 years, while the 6% decrease for Blacks over the same period is touted as an Olympic victory.

To be sure, we should be happy for decreases, but to have such a disproportionate poverty/population rate is itself shameful; writing as though all Black socio-economic woes are over is rather stupid.

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